Last post ended on a problem. The game solved itself because your crew never changed, so the best plan was always the same plan. Here's the fix: energy.
Crew get tired. Working a station drains a crew member's energy, resting (leaving them on the bench) restores it, and a tired crew member does worse work. That one number quietly breaks the puzzle open. You can't run your best crew every single day, so some mornings you rest your star cook and either drop their station or gamble on someone weaker. Yesterday's best plan is rarely today's. As a bonus, it keeps hiring and upgrades useful for longer, because now your crew is a resource you spend, not just a fixed roster.
Everyone has an energy bar now. Run them too hard and it shows.
On top of the slow tug of fatigue, there are three choices in the moment.
- An exhausted crew member has to rest. You can't force them onto a shift.
- Boost spends a little extra energy for a stronger result, enough to turn a risky station into a safe one when it really matters.
- Tip lets you pay coin to drag an exhausted crew member back onto a shift anyway, but at reduced output. It's a deliberately bad deal, costly and weak, so you can't just buy your way out of fatigue, which would defeat the whole point.
Boost and Tip show up on a station when they apply.
Now the daily question has teeth. Which crew member works, which rests, who gets boosted, who gets pushed, it all shifts with the day's guests. The days finally feel different from one another.
The tuning is still rough. My first pass had crews hitting a wall by day three, which was miserable, so I softened it. But the main goal is met: there's no longer a single right answer you can autopilot.
Next, giving your guests a memory, so the regulars start to matter.